Sunday December 31th 2006

Happy New Year's Eve, hope you had fun - no posts

Saturday December 30th 2006

The Black Bull died today
Must Read, a quote"They did it. They gave this Ummah a sacrifice on the day of Eid ul Adha. What an unforgettable Eid!! A human sacrifice. Not a sheep or goat. What a message!! Wow!! What a powerful message that I am sure has shaken all the thrones of the puppets who are watching the events. Poor puppets!! "

This is truth, a powerful tale of what will happen to the international community as the US rampages through it.  It's a tale of woe, remember it. - MPG

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Intensify the witch-hunt
Must Read, regarding how America APPEARS to continually get the "long war" wrong.  A quote...."The imprecision of retribution may be functional, as in the ancient witch-hunt. There need be no logical connection between the crime and the chosen victim. The focus is frequently on the evil intentions of the victim, which (as with Saddam Hussein) are presumed to be harmful."

"It is the weakness of the victim (the lack of weapons of mass destruction, the military vulnerability of Lebanon) that attracts the persecutor. The victim may be forcibly invited to collude. Witch-hunts were legitimised by the witch’s confession; Saddam was invited to confess to WMD he did not actually possess: torture and confession may legitimise arbitrary detentions. Those who challenge the morality or efficacy of the witch-hunt may be labelled as witches, or now as anti-American."

And the Empire Mourned….Dissecting the Big Lie
Must Read, Quotes from the article -

“If we ever pass out as a great nation we ought to put on our tombstone 'America died from a delusion that she had moral leadership'.”
--Will Rogers

"It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil. The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them."
--Noam Chomsky
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2007 -- Year of Madness
Must Read, good summary of how we as a country got here and where we're going.

The Disrespect for Truth has Brought a New Dark Age
More regarding the mendacity of our Nation’s "mass media"

Is Anybody There, Does Anybody Care, Does Anybody See What I See?
Ditto.

Mafia-Style Justice - Executing Saddam, Protecting the Rackets
A quote...."Saddam's execution was a triumphal ritual by US power against an occupied -- though still unconquered -- Iraqi people, it was the political decapitation of the former Iraqi elite, a demonstration intended to show Iraqi subjugation to Western power. But, the abysmal failure by the US managers of the Iraq War has undercut any propaganda value Saddam's execution might have had with the Iraqi public."

Hang Times: A Whitewash of White House Complicity
Chris Floyd reviews one of today’s New York Times articles regarding Saddam's hanging - succinct and to the point.
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Alexandrovna Guest Op-Ed: Saddam's Execution and the Campaign Against Iran
Regarding strategy, chess and the "Great Game"

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Top Ten Ways the US Enabled Saddam Hussein
Regarding Saddam's former friend and greatest benefactor......the US.
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Hussein Video Grips Iraq; Attacks Go On
A quote...." Two guards added, “Supporting his son Moktada, Moktada, Moktada.”

"Mr. Hussein seemed a bit stunned, swinging his head in their direction."

"They were talking about Moktada al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric whose militia is now committing some of the worst violence in the sectarian fighting; he is the son of a revered Shiite cleric, Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, who many believe Mr. Hussein had murdered."

"'Moktada?' he spat out, a mix between sarcasm and disbelief."

Ah yes, Moktada al-Sadr he's the one that must be destroyed, he's the one that the Sunnis must be taught to hate....he's also the one that won't cooperate with the Americans, coincidence?  Somehow the faint stench of the Rendon Group and the Lincoln Group is wafting through the air.  That rotten egg smell of sulfur they and their minions in the US's "mass media" always leave behind in their wake.

This is all so predictably obvious.  Why don't you guys try to be a little more subtle, at least make the effort.
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Saddam: The questions that will live on
A nice sparse summation of why the US elites did what they did to Iraq, and where the US will go from here - absolutely nowhere.

Saddam Becomes A Martyr Of Imperialist Resistane
Yes it appears that the Bush Cabal has made another mistake...again...surprise!

Former Longtime Confidant Accuses Ariel Sharon Of Assassinating Yasser Arafat
And later, Sharon had his "fortuitous" moment of incapacitation, which allowed Olmert to further the US's Neocons PNAC quest throughout the Middle East.

Maybe there really is such a thing as Karma after all.
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Pakistan could become next US nightmare
A quote...."IT HAS more than twice as many people as Iran, six times more than Iraq, many primed for Islamic extremism by a legacy of poverty and illiteracy left by decades of misrule by corrupt secular leaders, civilian and military."

Saddam was Right and Bush was Wrong
A quote...."Think about it. It was the Bush administration and not Saddam that turned out to be lying about WMDs. As we all know now, there weren't any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Amazingly enough, it was Saddam who was telling the truth from the very beginning. Bush was the one who lied to the whole world."

9/11: Press For Truth (DVD)
Good dvd for sale.

Cheney suffers 117th heart attack, in recovery
Who says they're joking?

Friday December 29th 2006

World laughing at US: Mahathir
A quote...."The US has become an international laughing stock because of Iraq, and Australia is suffering for its relationship with America, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has said. 'America has lost,' he said yesterday. 'It used to be a world power. It is no longer a world power.'"

"In an exclusive interview with "The Weekend Australian" in his office near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister said: 'The whole world is laughing at America, at the stupidity of the decisions they made and at the refusal to recognise the situation.'"

"He described US President George W.Bush as being in 'total self-denial'."
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Shiite lawmaker: Saddam to be hanged before noon Saturday
A quote...."   BAGHDAD, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi former president Saddam Hussein could be hanged before noon Saturday, Iraqi state television reported on Friday night."

Wow, what a coincidence that Saddam is to be executed just in time for the New Year's celebration and Bush's upcoming speech.  The execution will dovetail so nicely with Bush's nationally televised New Year's resolution extravaganza of how this will be another "turning point in Iraq"

Ain't it just absolutely amazing how these things seem to be timed so perfectly for what the Neocons want, Saddam’s execution with Bush's speech......9/11 with the PNAC agenda

Those conservative Neocons are just so darned prescient, don't you think?  One wonders how they do it.
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The execution of Saddam Hussein
More regarding Saddam's execution.

Americans Want A Rapid Exit From Iraq But Elected Leaders Aren’t Even Considering It
A quote...."Why is the leadership of both parties in Washington, DC failing to discuss getting out of Iraq – rapidly? They say a U.S. exit will lead to an escalation of violence, a blood bath or civil war. But the truth is we can design a rapid exit from Iraq that reduces the risk of violence. How?"

"First, it is important to look at the real violence. While sectarian violence gets all the attention in the U.S. media. The November 2006 DoD report, “Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq” found that more than 80% of violence is directed at the U.S. military or at the Iraqi military. “Coalition forces attracted the majority (68%) of attacks.” said the report. Attacks on Iraqi Security Forces are the next largest category, with attacks on civilians being the smallest group. Thus, the real war is between Iraqi’s fighting the U.S. and its Iraqi allies. Of course, civilian’s amount for the most casualties as they are unprotected when attacks occur."
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After Abu Ghraib, conscience becomes his only home
Regarding the man who turned in the Abu Ghraib photos - Joseph Darby, a specialist with the Army's 372nd Military Police Company at Guantanamo Bay at the time he turned in the photos - and America's treatment of whistle blowers.

A quote...."The commander of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post, Colin Engelbach, told "60 Minutes" Darby 'was a rat. He was a traitor. He let his unit down, he let his fellow soldiers down.'"

"Darby heard that in Cumberland, people who had known him since he was born - 'my parents' friends, my grandparents' friends turned against me.' And his wife, Bernadette, heard people there say that her husband was 'a dead man ... walking around with a bull's-eye on his head.'"

To all the Americans who feel this way, one day you're going to give your little daughter a pill to make her feel better, get into a car, get ordered to take an injection while serving in the army, get on a plane, get stopped by the police, drink some water from your faucet, have your pension in a company like Enron, live near a dam, live near a dike, live near a government facility like the Fort Detrick bio-warfare center.....and there won't be a whistle blower there for you or your family.

When that day comes, when that moment of truth arrives....remember how you felt about whistle blowers, remember what you said about them.
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“Bush - Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951” - Federal Documents
Must Read  A quote...."After the seizures in late 1942 of five U.S. enterprises he managed on behalf of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, failed to divest himself of more than a dozen "enemy national" relationships that continued until as late as 1951, newly-discovered U.S. government documents reveal."

Sort of like the Carlyle group, Bushes, bin Ladens, and the Saudi Royals....some Bush family traditions never die.
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Too Little Too Late
Must Read, we're all in a whole lot 'a trouble

Nick Schou's 'Kill the Messenger' Probes the CIA, the Crack Cocaine Trade, and a Journalist 's Untimely Death
Must Read, good story, a quote...."Nick Schou, an editor at Orange County Weekly, reviews and analyzes the remarkable and tragic story of Gary Webb, an investigative reporter who wrote a shell-shocking, three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 about the CIA's controversial connection to Nicaraguan Contras selling crack cocaine in the United States."

Iraq officials say U.S. behind Sadr aide killing
A quote...."NAJAF, Iraq, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Iraqi officials in the city of Najaf said on Thursday that a raid which killed a top aide of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was a violation of the deal that transferred U.S. control of Najaf to the Iraqi army."

Sounds like the American Indians all over again.  No deal, no agreement, no contract, no promise signed by anyone in this current government is worth the paper it's written on.  If you do any sort of deal with the members of this administration you're simply asking for trouble.
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Report: U.S. frees 2 Iranian detainees
A quote...."'Fortunately with the effort exerted by the Iraqi officials, the U.S. forces, who first denied their arrest, were obliged to admit it and under pressure from the Iraqi government to release them,' IRNA quoted Qomi as saying. Iran did not provide any more information about the diplomats and their release."

And no statement, no word, no story, no report, no description ever uttered by anyone in this administration is worth the air wasted on it.  If you believe what they tell you, you’ll have only yourself to blame.

* Italics added by website author.
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Neocons and Democrats Tussle over Long or Short “Surge” of Violence in Iraq
A quote...."It’s sort of like throwing more gasoline on a fire in an effort to put it out."

The Legal Year in Review
How did the Washington Post let this one get by the editorial board?

'Argentinian death squad leader' arrested in Spain
A quote...."A former police officer accused of being in a death squad responsible for more than 600 deaths in Argentina in the 1970s was arrested in Spain on Thursday night."

Hey Bushy, Rummy and Cheney....pay close attention to what will be your eventual fate.
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Chavez wins "Person of the Year" poll ... Time magazine ignores result
Our sniveling, cowardly, spineless, faux-news, presstitutes at work again.

Bush's Wonderland and through the Looking Glass of Iraq
It's more like Alice meets Freddy Kruger.

First-timers find homes further out of reach
An example of the still buoyant British housing bubble.

Thursday December 28th 2006

A Look Back and Ahead In An Age of Neocon Rule
Must Read, a quote...."Borrowing the opening line from Dickens' Tale of Two Cities - "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...." He referred to the French Revolution promising "Liberte, egalite and fraternite" that began in 1789, inspired by ours from 1775 - 1783. It ended a 1000 years of monarchal rule in France benefitting those of privilege and established the nation as a republic the way ours did for us here a few years earlier."
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Illegal ‘terror ops’ may explain White House censorship
A quote...."As previously reported by the American Monitor, one element of the “grand bargain” involved swapping members of an anti-Iranian terrorist organization, known as the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK or MKO), for senior al-Qaeda operatives that were in Iran’s custody at the time. The potential deal, however, as Leverett and others contend, was rejected by senior Bush Administration officials who sought to use the MEK as a proxy force against the Iranian regime, a tactic they reportedly began to carry out no later than January of 2005"

It's a no brainer on the part of the Bush Cabal.  Why would they want useless al-Qaeda members who they've already financed and trained (that's right America....remember, the Mujahideen, Pakistan's ISI, etc.) and who have already carried out the most successful false flag, psyops operation in world history to be placed in their custody as prisoners?

 They've done their job already, they're useless now, just a bunch of has beens who are no longer needed.  You certainly don't want them as prisoners. Unlike the innocent victims being tortured at Gitmo some of these guys might actually know something....it could get embarrassing.

So why would you trade them for your up and coming brand spanking new terrorist, oops.....so sorry, ‘scuse me.....for that new wonderful bunch of "freedom fighters" spreading terror and chaos.....oops , did it again, so sorry, meant to say spreading "freedom and democracy" throughout the Middle East?

That wouldn't make any sense at all.
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Violence plagues Guatemala decade after war's end
A quote...."Ten years after the end of a civil war that killed about a quarter of a million people, Guatemala is still racked with violence, and struggling to overcome corruption, drug smuggling and poverty."

Hey look....more American "freedom and democracy".....ten years later.  My goodness this all seems so familiar for some strange unknown reason. Can't quite figure out why.
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Rope Trick:Burying America's Collusion With Saddam
A quote...."Saddam Hussein, who is being held in American custody, has been tried by an American-appointed court which has ensured that all evidence pertaining to the massive Anglo-American support given to Saddam during the worst years of his savage reign has been completely supressed. The crimes for which he has been sentenced to death were carried out while Donald Rumsfeld was shaking his hand and Ronald Reagan was supplying him with moolah, diplomatic support and direct military intelligence to target his poison gas attacks on Iranian forces and aid his bombing of Iranian cities."

Purple Fingers?, What Purple Fingers?
A quote...."Yes, apparently the democratically elected leadership of Iraq is attempting to hold diplomatic talks with its neighbors, Iran.  Iraq is quickly disintegrating and hopes that its neighbor Iran will help stabilize the situation. Imagine that, actually talking to people? What a novel concept. To that end, President  Jalal Talabani invited delegates from Iran to come visit, something that a sovereign nation should be able to do, right? Wrong:"

Shooting the messenger is a war crime
A quote...."The Committee to Protect Journalists recently released its 2006 report on threats to journalists. Iraq is by far the deadliest place for the fourth year in a row, with 32 journalists killed this year. Sad to say, the violence follows a trend that started with the U.S. invasion of Iraq."

Lawyer Ends Up Dead After Taking On Rove
A quote....Paul Sanford, a prominent Aptos, California, attorney, who accused Karl Rove of treason in the Plame outing case, took a leap from the Embassy Suites Hotel in Monterey Bay on Christmas Eve. Police describe it as “probable” suicide, even though it appears Sanford was not depressed."

I think the correct term is "suicided"
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Hunt for CIA 'black site' in Poland
A quote...."I stood at the end of the frozen runway, peering through the mist, trying to make out the terminal building in the distance.  It was exactly at this spot, and under the cover of darkness, that the CIA planes did their business.  "They always followed the same procedure," says Mariola Przewlocka, the manager at the remote Szymany airport in north-east Poland when the strange flights arrived during 2003."

Time to worry: White House says no terror threats for New Year's
A quote...."They've been wrong every time.  -  In Bush's "opposite world" everything he and his minions say turns out to be 180 degrees from reality. We're making great progress and freedom is on the march in Iraq. The economy is booming. There's no such thing as global warming or evolution. We don't to torture - at least until the pictures slip out. The strategy was never "stay the course". And of course, terror alerts being raised to yellow for no apparent reason. So now, based on history, when the Bush White House tells us not to worry, it makes me very nervous".

AP: Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Held Again
A quote...."ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- In his chronicle of life as an inmate at Guantanamo Bay, Afghan writer Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost describes his three years of humiliating detention for alleged ties to al-Qaida.   Now, he has lost his liberty again -- this time believed jailed by the Pakistani intelligence service for the book's fierce criticism of the agency's role in the U.S.-led war on terrorist groups."

Would Kafka be proud or ashamed that his literary works reflected real life so well?
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Anonymous testimony pushes limits
posted at The Angry Arab News Svc, a quote....""In three current high-profile criminal cases, federal prosecutors have asked that the identities of Israeli government witnesses be withheld from defendants and their attorneys — a move some legal scholars see as a highly unusual end run around the 6th"

Gerald Ford’s Historic Mistake
A quote...."The pardon of Richard Nixon by President Gerald Ford started this nation on the path that eventually gave us the Constitutional abuses of George W Bush. The current media frenzy supporting the pardon is both simplistic and illogical."

India joins the African energy race
A quote...."NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- India and China will focus on jointly pursuing opportunities in petroleum exploration in the West and north African countries and in Caspian littoral countries, Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Secretary M.S. Srinivasan said Wednesday."

Notice how it's not "the US and India" or "the US and China".  That's because everyone knows how the US "plays the game"....and they're not stupid.
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It looks like the oil men are going to carry the day in Iraq
A quote...."In a poll sponsored by the University of Michigan this summer, Iraqis gave as the reason behind the United States’ invasion as 1) To control Iraqi oil (76 percent), 2) To build military bases (41 percent) 3) To help Israel (32 percent). Only 2 percent of Iraqis thought we were coming to spread democracy."

And neither are the Iraqis.
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Jimmy Carter's Sin Against Israel
A quote...."We all knew Jimmy Carter was in for it. Before anyone had read a single paragraph of his book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," well known heavy hitters in the media were taking pot shots at the ex-president. Jennifer Siegel of the Forward got it right in saying that "critics of the former president probably will be most offended by his use of the word 'apartheid.'"(1) In so doing, Carter departed from a particular script that leaders of the pro-Israel community were willing to tolerate from U.S. critics of Israel."

Carter's Real Sin is Cutting to the Heart of the Problem
A quote...."As Jimmy Carter's new book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid climbs the bestseller list, the reaction of Israel's apologists scales new peaks of lunacy. I will examine a pair of typical examples and then look at the latest weapon to silence Carter."

Hezbollah rises from ruins of its Beirut home
A quote...."Its political resurgence traces to the Israeli destruction of Dahiyeh, which it aims to remake."

Not Worthy of Tribute
A quote...."If it happens one day that the Arabs remember 2006, they will describe it as the year of massacres, disasters and plans of collective suicide. We hope it was not the start of years of massacres to come."

From the Arab perspective.
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Six Nations Want All Troops Out of Iraq
A quote...."(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - A majority of adults in five European countries and the United States believe the coalition effort should come to an end, according to a poll by Harris Interactive for France 24 and Le Monde. 90 per cent of respondents in France and 84 per cent of respondents in Spain support the withdrawal of all troops from Iraq.  Britain is next on the list with 83 per cent, followed by Germany with 82 per cent, Italy with 77 per cent, and the U.S. with 66 per cent."

John Kenneth Galbraith Understood Capitalism as Lived - Not as Theorized
A quote...."NEW YORK -- Economists John Kenneth Galbraith and Milton Friedman believed that ideas mattered. Both were great proponents and great exemplars of debate and discussion. Each was a master of the English language, and it was through words, not mathematics (the language of modern economics), that they exercised enormous influence."
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A return to the politics of envy could serve us well
A quote...."In that sense, high pay rises among the top 1% are as inflationary as wage rises among the mass of the population. It's just that this inflation affects assets rather than goods and services. For years our rulers have insisted that one worker's wage rise is another's job loss. It is equally true that one person's fat-cat bonus is another's loss of home ownership prospects. It may be a job loss, too, since the Bank of England's concerns about an overheating housing market may cause it to raise interest rates."

For more on this see..."The Scourge of the Wealthy - Deflation / The Balm of the Wealthy - War"
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Murder Rates up in Many Major U.S. Cities in 2006
Deja'vu all over again.

Global warming claims island
A quote...."KOLKATA: Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth.  The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India’s part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true."

Ice mass snaps free from Canada's arctic (size of 11,000 football fields)
A quote...."A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, scientists said."

Wednesday December 27th 2006

Euro notes cash in to overtake dollar
A quote...." The US dollar bill’s standing as the world’s favourite form of cash is being usurped by the five-year-old euro.  The value of euro notes in circulation is this month likely to exceed the value of circulating dollar notes, according to calculations by the Financial Times. Converted at Wednesday’s exchange rates, the euro took the lead in October."
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Iran backed dangerously into a corner
Just where the Neocons want them to be.  The DOW is at an all time record, the market is overbought, there's a lot of insider selling, it's a non-election year, Bush and Blair are sending ships into the Gulf, US forces have just arrested two Iranians and have accused them of supporting the chaos in Iraq, the arrest of course was headline news for our "mass media" including the ever reliable New York Times, (you know.... Judy Miller, WMD, all that stuff).....everything’s going perfectly.

Another month or two of drum beating, more "arrests" more "evidence" and all the Bushists and the elites will need is just one more "incident" or "event".

Than the big boys will play the markets just as they did before 9/11, and just as they did before the Iraq invasion when they bought at the bottom and rode this current war rally to it's all time high.  Yee Hah!
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Anger in Iraq's Najaf after U.S. kills Sadr aide
A quote...."Dec 27, 2006 — NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched through the holy Iraqi city of Najaf in an angry funeral procession after a senior Sadr aide was killed by a U.S. soldier on Wednesday."

Looks like the US is closing in on Moqtada al-Sadr.  A quote below from Mr. Reficul Conv Num. Two mailing #13 08-29-05 

"We do have the problem of that stupid Moqtada al-Sadr running around saying he wants a nationalist not a federalist government. We can’t have that; it could lead to a national resistance movement. Who would have figured a Shi’ite helping to hold Iraq together with the Sunnis,” Mr Reficul wondered bemusedly, “but you don’t have to worry about him, something ‘fortuitous’ will happen to him.”

Yes indeed.....something "fortuitous".
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Afghan heroin's surge poses danger in U.S.
A quote...."Supplies of highly potent Afghan heroin in the United States are growing so fast that the pure white powder is rapidly overtaking lower-quality Mexican heroin, prompting fears of increased addiction and overdoses."

Why does all of this seem so familiar?  And when the next reporter does his job, and tracks down any connections between the US government and the now burgeoning heroin trade, are the New York Times or the Washington Post going to do a hatchet job on him just like they did on journalist Gary Webb?

This is all so predictable.
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Is There Time to Alter America's Legacy of Greed and Destruction
Probably not, but one has to admire all those people who tilt at windmills.

Howard Zinn on The Uses of History and the War on Terrorism  A speech delivered Oct 5 in Madison, Wisconsin.
A quote...."....Well, do you get the feeling sometime that you're living in an occupied country? Very often that's a feeling I get when I wake up in the morning. I think, "I'm living in an occupied country. A small group of aliens have taken over the country and are trying to do with it what they will, you know, and really are." I mean, they are alien to me...."

Why is Latin America going red?
As the author points out it's really more pink than red, and the reason they're turning pink is because of what was done to them by the US.

Ecuador Bonds Tumble as Patino Signals Possibility of Default
You go guys, the IMF, World Bank, et al, bribed your previous leaders to get those bonds issued at unfavorable terms. You don't owe them squat.  There are a lot of better lenders out there than the loan sharks otherwise known as the US banking industry.

The USA PATRIOT Act Was Planned Before 9/11
Just a reminder for those who are still in denial - from the history file.

George Orwell Was Right: Spy Cameras See Britons' Every Move
A quote...."During the past decade, the [British] government has spent 500 million pounds ($1 billion) on spy cameras and now has one for every 14 citizens, according to a September report prepared for Information Commissioner Richard Thomas by the Surveillance Studies Network, a panel of U.K. academics."

And much, much more.  Just you wait and see, as American society begins to break down again as it did during the Vietnam War and crime begins to spiral out of control, the DemoRepub party will introduce the Big Brother society to all of us.
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Dare We Not Say Genocide?
A quote...."How to speak of Vietnam"

The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time (Hardcover)
Book review.

Tuesday December 26th 2006

The Iraq Study Group Report -- Has the Empire Really Failed?
Must Read. a quote...."....The war is almost universally viewed as a political and military disaster for the U.S. empire.  Nevertheless, Washington is still hoping amidst the devastation to hold on to some of its long-term economic and strategic goals in Iraq.  Realization of these will have made the war 'worth it' from the standpoint of the U.S. ruling class, irrespective of the cost in lives and treasure."

"There is no doubt what these spoils are: (1) control of Iraqi oil reserves (the second largest in the world), (2) 'geopolitical gains' (or greater domination of the vital Middle East oil region), and (3) strengthening of U.S. global hegemony as a result of this new oil imperium......"
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American Thinker says 9/11 skepticism "extremely dangerous"
Of course it is.  Any investigation of that "fortuitous" event (9/11) which calls into question the holy scriptures (the PNAC protocols), raises doubts about America's holy crusade (full spectrum dominance, the long war, the thirty year war), causes supplicants (the American masses, the little people, peons, peasants) to question their faith in  the divine guidance annunciated by this Nation's town criers (the mass media) and interpreted by this Nation's priestly class (the political establishment)  as given to them by this Nation's guiding lights (the wealthiest one percent, 236 Gang) is extremely dangerous.

Any criticism of an event that establishes the foundation of a new paradigm, no matter how absurd and patently false that event actually is and no matter how contrived or self-serving the new paradigm is proven to be, deeply threatens all those whose social place in the political hierarchy and livelihoods are derived from that event and the false paradigm based upon it.

Or to put this more colloquially.....America you’ve been taken for a ride - big time.
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U.S. Is Detaining Iranians Caught in Raids in Iraq
A quote....".... the two raids, in central Baghdad, have deeply upset Iraqi government officials, who have been making strenuous efforts to engage Iran on matters of security. At least two of the Iranians were in this country on an invitation extended by Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, during a visit to Tehran earlier this month. It was particularly awkward for the Iraqis that one of the raids took place in the Baghdad compound of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite leaders, who traveled to Washington three weeks ago to meet President Bush."

There go the Iraqis again, thinking they're in charge of "their" country.  Silly little people.
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Video: Kristol believes Bush mulling more than 'short term surge'
A quote...."Neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol believes that any increase of U.S. troops in Iraq must be a permanent increase to achieve success."

That's right, you're reading it correctly.  It's Bill Kristol himself, author and chief contributor to the PNAC protocols and this Nation's current disaster saying we need to do even more of the same.

You poor deluded Americans, you went to the polls, did your civic duty and you actually thought it would make a difference, you still actually think it's "your" government.  You're just like the Iraqis.
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Historical Perspectives on Latin American and East Asian Regional Development
A quote...."There was a meeting on the weekend of December 9-10 in Cochabamba in Bolivia of major South American leaders. It was a very important meeting. One index of its importance is that it was unreported, virtually unreported apart from the wire services. So every editor knew about it. Since I suspect you didn't read that wire service report, I'll read a few things from it to indicate why it was so important."

Chomsky's right.....of course the "mass media" in this country didn't report it.   You think the elites that own them want to even give a hint to Latin America on how to improve their standard of living?  It's real simple, trade, invest and borrow from each other and don't ever let an American corporation cross your threshold, if you invite the evil ones into your homes, you'll all wind up like Iraq.

Think about it.
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The US Secret Bioweapons Program
From the history file and for the record, a quote...." Editorial note - The following article, first published in November 2001, focusses on the early stages of the WMD propaganda campaign directed against Iraq.  The PR campaign  launched shortly after 9/11 consisted in establishing links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden."

"Alongside the so-called "links" between Osama and Saddam Hussein, the Anthrax attacks were also being used to build a justification for extending the "campaign against international terrorism" to Iraq."
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Monday December 25th 2006

Merry Christmas - no posts.

Sunday December 24th 2006

Missions Accomplished - The Empire and Inequality Report, Issue No. 5
Must read, a quote...."For all their legendary incompetence, Cheney and Bush have accomplished real and big missions for the people that George W. Bush once half-jokingly referred to as "my base": the super-rich."

"The Bubble-Boy -King may well go down as the Worst President Ever. But let's not fool ourselves about who policy really serves in our corporate-plutocratic "dollar democracy."  Bush and his handlers have been quite successful for those they actually represent - the privileged few - in numerous ways......"

Nicely sums up what's happened so far by consistently applying the only rule for geo-political-economic analysis that has any predictive value whatsoever.....the rule called "follow the money".
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The Nation weakly trashes 9/11 skeptics
Must Read.

Just remember two things as you read this article. (1) The theory that a bunch of nut jobs waltzed onto some planes and rammed them into some buildings without ANY state actor in the ENTIRE world (like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan for instance) being involved, IS a conspiracy theory. (2) As far as paranoia goes, this country has been bombarded, 24/7 non-stop "they're coming to get us" orange alerts, yellow alerts, under your bed alerts, in your shampoo for God's sake alerts, that it's totally ridiculous and preposterous for ANYBODY to suggest that any other theory could possibly be more paranoid then the official one already given to us.
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Venezuela’s Black Vote
More horrible news from Venezuela, not only did more than 80% of registered voters in Venezuela cast their ballots in the recent election (much more than in most US elections), but shockingly they even let Black people vote, and worse than that, they even counted their votes.

Horrible isn't it?  Totally unlike the civilized USA, it's all a perfect demonstration of just how barbarous those Venezuelans truly are.  Bush was absolutely correct when he tried to overthrow Chavez's government in 2002, just imagine if this sort of disgusting behavior should ever reach the US.  One shudders to think of what would happen if the "little people", especially those "black people” were allowed to vote and actually had their votes counted.

It’s just so awful to contemplate.
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Real Victory over Empire
Good op-ed piece, to the point.

Presidential Profiling
On a related note, more pointedness regarding Bush, the sadistic sociopath.

Bush's 'Global War on Radicals' posted at Consortium News
A quote...."The United States will never win the 'war on terror,' in part, because George W. Bush keeps applying elastic definitions to the enemy, most recently expanding the conflict into a war against Muslim 'radicals and extremists.'"

"With almost no notice in Official Washington, Bush has inserted this new standard for judging who’s an enemy as he lays the groundwork for a wider conflict in the Middle East and a potentially endless world war against many of the planet’s one billion adherents to Islam."
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Could Bush Start Another War?
A quote...."All the news is that despite growing antiwar sentiment among the public and the establishment, Bush has decided to reject the major recommendations of the Baker panel and continue to settle for nothing less than total "victory" in Iraq, that he has turned back to the dark heart of the War Party, the American Enterprise Institute, for a plan to win and that more troops and ships are headed to the region."

"Everyone outside AEI seems to agree that the chances for his "victory" of a multiethnic, America-friendly, democratic Iraqi state have long since expired. The Baker panel avoided using the term at all. And as investigative reporter Robert Dreyfuss explained to me last week, the U.S. is backing the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) death squad leaders because they are the only ones (besides some of the Kurds in the autonomous North) who want – need – the U.S. to stay. This is hardly the "road to victory" as it has been defined by the President."
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Shiites stick together in Iraq: Cleric rejects plan to isolate extremists, ask for al-Sadr help
A quote...."NAJAF, Iraq - One of Iraq's most influential Shiite clerics rejected a U.S.-backed proposal to isolate Shiite extremists in the national government, saying the country should govern itself with the help of anti-U.S. firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr, according to politicians who spoke with the cleric Saturday."

Looks like the US plan of getting rid of Muqtada al-Sadr isn't going so well.  This isn't good for the US, if the US can't get rid of Muqtada al-Sadr and he really does want to do a deal in good faith with the Sunnis (a big if) than the US's failure to get rid of him will throw a big monkey wrench into it's plans of playing off the Shais against the Sunnis and than flipping the Sunnis in order to divide the entire Middle East along sectarian lines.
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A Bad Year for Empire
A summary of the setbacks the US Empire experienced in 2006, it will be MUCH worse for 2007.  How about this for an idea, how about not having an empire at all?  Now there's a thought.

Middle East Peace Process: Stagnation by Design
A quote...."But Sharon had his own way of dealing with 'ungrateful' Palestinians. Addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party less than two years earlier, Sharon highlighted his peace strategy on Nov. 15, 1998, by saying: 'Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we can take now will stay ours...everything we don’t grab will go to them.'"

So Sharon "wanted to grab the hilltops" because he knew there would be two states, Israel and Palestine and he wanted to grab as much territory as he could, build his separation wall and retreat.  But Olmert and the Texas Cabal Neocons had other ideas.....they didn't want Israel to retreat, they wanted Israel to expand and attack the Palestinians, Lebanon, Syria and Iran in their decades long plan of constructive instability to transform the Middle East and gain control of the oil resources throughout the region.

Sharon obviously didn't agree ......too bad about his stroke, maybe it was the pressure of his not agreeing with Bush/Blair/Olmert & Co. that caused it, yeah that must be it, it was the pressure of his not agreeing.

However his stroke sure came at a pretty good time for the Bush/Blair/Olmert/PNAC crowd, didn't it?
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Hilo soldier dies on 4th tour in Iraq
Eventually a person's luck runs out.  To all the soldiers out there think of where you'll be on your fourth tour, (the first Iraqi surge), your fifth tour (the third Fallujah suppression), your sixth tour (the second Baghdad sweep), your seventh tour (the Venezuelan incursion), your eighth tour (the first Iranian incursion), your ninth tour (the Iranian counter attack), your tenth tour......well you get the idea.

Sooner or later your luck is going to run out.
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The Article V 100: An Untitled Documentary
Oh this is too much!!  Not only does "O-bombs-away Obama" want to stay the course in Iraq, he also supports America's guess-a-vote system and wants to "stay the course" regarding the Hinder America's Vote Act (HAVA).... you know those electronic voting machines.

What a great guy....thanks alot.
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Carter: US "Prime Culprit" in Nuclear Proliferation
A quote...."Former President Jimmy Carter says by "rejecting or evading almost all nuclear arms control agreements negotiated during the past 50 years, the United States has now become the prime culprit in global nuclear proliferation."

Saturday December 23rd 2006

Impending Police State in America
Interview with Professor Francis Boyle
Must Listen - audio - a quote...."Francis A Boyle says 9/11 was allowed to happen, war on terror is facilitating the downfall of The Republic, concentration camps are in place and US citizens are the targets"

See also Senator Who Suffered Stroke Supports Anthrax Investigation & U.S. lawmakers press for info on 5-year-old anthrax scare   A quote...."Note: The following report was published before it was announced today that Senator Johnson had suffered a stroke."

I guess senators shouldn't stick their noses in where they don't belong, especially if their deaths or incapacitation would result in control of the Senate passing back to the other party and thereby halting all those planned investigations.Wow!! That’s three birds with one stroke.

See also....False Flag Ops  (ANTHRAX US ATTACK)
See also....Bush "Developing Illegal Bioterror Weapons" for Offensive Use
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UQ Wire: Anthrax Attack On Congress FBI Cover Up
A quote...."The perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attack on Congress likely was a government scientist employed at the Army’s Ft. Detrick, Md., bioterrorism lab having access to a “moonsuit” that made it possible to safely process and manufacture super-weapons-grade anthrax, a bioterrorism authority says."

'Although only a “handful” of scientists had the ability to perpetrate the crime, the culprit, or culprits, among them may never be identified as the FBI ordered the destruction of the anthrax culture collection at Ames, Ia., from which the Ft. Detrick lab got its pathogens, the authority said."
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Global economy faces a dangerous year
Economic Alert - A quote...."Rising inflation and falling home prices are likely to push the US economy into recession by the second half of 2007. Gathering economic weakness, combined with negative real yields on US Treasury securities and growing political pressure to weaken the dollar will lead to significant dollar depreciation against most currencies."

To all other countries, you must take immediate steps to decouple yourselves from the dollar. That doesn't mean sell them, that would only make things worse, it does mean you should start trading and adding to your bank reserves only in other currencies.  You should also immediately eliminate dollar investments in your countries and set up investment and trade agreements between each other while specifically excluding the United States until the US gets it's priorities in order, for instance becoming a law abiding member of the international community.

The US with the full connivance of it's elites, and with aid of what one should delicately refer to as an extremely well timed "event" tried to set up a their version of the New Roman Empire, which is now collapsing under it's own weight like the sinking of the Titanic.  If you do not want your economies to be sucked down into the vortex along with it you must make immediate arrangements to protect yourselves from its inevitable sinking.

See also....Is a [2004] Elect Yr Rally Still Poss? - PDF format and The Greatest Pump and Dump in Financial History
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Friday December 22nd 2006

The Great Game on a razor's edge
A quote...."Over the past year, it has become clear that the US will not be able to become the single dominant power in Central Asia and thereby control oil and gas and their transportation routes. Russia and China have together put up dikes delimiting US influence, though they are far from being a tight couple. The death of Turkmenistan's president Saparmurat Niyazov, however, could dramatically shift the center of gravity of the Great Game"

The redacted Iran op-ed revealed
RAW STORY'S reconstruction of authors Flynt Leverett's and Hillary Mann's redacted NYT's op-ed piece.
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US wrecked hopes of N Korean nuke deal
The Bushists somehow allow “terrorists” to make their escape, cooperate with countries that support "terrorism", attack those who don't, deliberately sabotage efforts to reduce tensions or arrive at amicable agreements with others.

Not to mention their non-stop and continuous lying.

It almost appears as if the current occupants of the White House are trying to sow dissension, create disagreements, manufacture enemies and encourage....."incidents."

The people in the current administration and the elites who sponsor them have eviscerated, belittled and ignored every international treaty solemnly entered into by this Nation along with this Nation's constitution and electoral system.

This administration and every single individual associated with it cannot be counted on to negotiate in good faith, honor any agreements, or abide by any future agreements they've signed. They do not know, do not care to know, nor are they probably able to comprehend the meaning of the following terms - truth, fact, verifiable, honor, commitment, trust, oath, binding, promise, law, treaty, rules, constitution and agreement.

As has already become totally apparent to everyone throughout the entire world their word as well as their signatures are utterly worthless.
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Secrecy and Foreign Policy
A quote...."Since the beginning of the republic, U.S. presidents have used some form of secrecy in the course of governing. In the wake of the Watergate scandal, congressional hearings in the 1970s and the disclosure of covert U.S. programs of assassination and destabilization overseas temporarily reduced the scope of secret activities sponsored by the executive branch. From the 1980s on, however, presidents have come to rely increasingly on secrecy-related practices. Though the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly grant executive secrecy in the list of Article II powers, presidents have increased their powers through legislation, the federal courts' recognition of legal defenses to conceal information, and responses to the ongoing threat of terrorism."

Gates pledges ‘enduring’ US presence in Gulf
War Alert - "BAGHDAD, Dec. 22 (Reuters) - An increased U.S. naval presence in the Gulf is not a response to any action by Iran but a message to all countries that the United States will keep its regional footprint "for a long time", U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday."

Target Iran
War Alert - "The Pentagon has announced plans to move additional warships and strike aircraft into the Persian Gulf region to be within striking range of Iran. We air an in-depth discussion between two of the leading critical voices on the Bush administration's policy in Iran: former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, author of "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change", and Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist for The New Yorker magazine."

Provoking Civil War in the Occupied Territories
A quote...."So it's official. Britain is no longer simply boycotting a democratically elected Palestinian government. Following Tony Blair's visit, it is committing millions of pounds to Fatah militias that wish to overthrow it. Naturally enough, Blair's foreign policy initiative came two weeks after the US reportedly did the same thing, sending a shipment of 6,000 assault rifles to Fatah's elite Force 17 unit."

US confirms backing Assad opposition
A quote...."The US government confirmed Thursday morning a Time  magazine report that it was working to secretly strengthen factions opposing the Assad regime in Syria."

Slim Chance for Reconciliation Recedes
A quote...."ARBIL (IPS) - Iraq's national reconciliation conference held on the weekend highlights the gap between the country's various political groups and their lack of consensus on a common basis for reconciliation."

Power struggle in Saudi Arabia: a sign of regional instability
A quote...."The abrupt resignation of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, Prince Turki al-Faisal, last week is one more sign of a power struggle underway in Riyadh. While factional intrigues in the Saudi royal family are undoubtedly involved, the overriding factor is the deepening instability throughout the Middle East being fuelled by the aggressive intervention of the US, above all in Iraq. One consequence has been an intensification of the traditional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran for regional dominance."

Washington pushes ahead with plans for Iraq “regime change”
A quote...."Further evidence this week confirms that the Bush administration’s “change of course” in Iraq includes the installation of a new regime that will sanction a military crackdown on the Mahdi Army—the militia associated with supporters of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Shiite fundamentalist Da’awa Party are being presented with an ultimatum: abandon the Sadrists or go down with them."

Boston Air Traffic Controller Says 9/11 An Inside Job
A quote...."A former Boston Center air traffic controller has gone public on his assertion that 9/11 was an inside job and that Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon tracked three of the four flights from the point of their hijacking to hitting their targets. In an astounding telephone interview, Robin Hordon claims air traffic controllers have been ignored or silenced to protect the true perpetrators of 9/11."

Stop the Presses; Press Ignores the Generals
A quote...."The Joint Chiefs of Staff and practically every actively serving General strongly opposes George W. Bush's proposed Iraq "Surge" Plan, but you've probably not heard too much about the Generals' general discontent. The average American probably hasn't heard about it, because the media only barely reported on the Generals' mutiny. True to form, the press dutifully ignored the Generals' concerns, but widely reported on the White House's insistence that the Generals' generally didn't disagree with the President.... However, in the event that the Generals, who don't disagree with the President, do decide to disagree with the President's Iraq "Surge" Plan - the President doesn't care, because he's "The Decider."

America Has Become Incarceration Nation
A quote...."The United States has now become the world leader in its rate of incarceration, locking up its citizens at 5-8 times the rate of other industrialized nations."

Leading RFK assassination researcher died with unanswered questions
A quote...."During his career, Professor Melanson authored a dozen books on government secrecy and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and brothers John and Robert Kennedy. Melanson amassed over 200,000 pages of secret government documents with Freedom of Information requests over the years and was instrumental in making available to the public the files of the Los Angeles Police Department concerning Robert Kennedy's killing."

Apartheid has more than one definition
A quote...."The ‘Israel above all’ defenders, such as Harvard University Professor Alan Dershowitz and New Republic magazine Editor-in-Chief, Martin Peretz, have opened a “bag of worms” that defeats their cause. Their criticism of former President Jimmy Carter’s use of the word apartheid in the title of his new book,” Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” falls flat and raises a question: Does Israel practice apartheid?" 

If it walks like a duck.......
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US and Latin America: Overview for 2006; Perspectives for 2007
A quote...."To understand US-Latin American relations this year and its likely trajectory in 2007 it is obligatory to consider three dimensions: 1) the global context of US-LA relations; 2) internal dynamics of the US and 3) the real practical political-economic consequences of the 2006 elections in Latin America."

Biotech GM Seeds Buccaneers destroy India's Rice Economy
A quote...."India is a centre of origin for rice and the centre for diversity for rice genes, in the same way as Mexico is for corn. It is therefore much more than just a rice country. This makes the Government’s cavalier attitude to India’s Non-GM status for rice, one of irresponsible criminal negligence. In embarking on high-risk field trials of GM-rice, it exposes our rice farmers to contamination by GM including transgenic contamination of wild species and the rice seed stock. If we Indians lose control over local rice seeds we lose our right to food and nutrition. We lose our sovereignty."

The correct term is FrankenFood.
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Media Follies 2006! - The Year's Most Overhyped and Underreported Stories
Our "main stream media" at work....or not, as the case may be.

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007
Project Censored's list.

Thursday December 21st 2006

Evil and the Oval Office: A Not-Fully-Baked Idea
Must See Video, a quote...."In our times, we have witnessed the forces of darkness and destruction take over the Oval Office. Recently, I’ve had a few moments in which it seemed not only valid, but most illuminating, to understand this takeover in the spiritual terms of “the opportunism of evil.” What greater target could evil choose in the entire world than to occupy the highest place of power in the most powerful nation on earth.

Scarborough Sees The Light—Barnicle: “Bush is delusional”
Must see video, you'll think you're in an alternate universe because this is coming to you from MSNBC.

See also...."The Empty Vessel"
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Vilsacking Iraq
Must Read -  "Reflections on Tough Love, Imperial Criminality, Selective Humor, and Democratic Complicity."

A Very Dangerous New Year - posted at Consortium News
War Update : A quote...."The first two or three months of 2007 represent a dangerous opening for an escalation of war in the Middle East, as George W. Bush will be tempted to “double-down” his gamble in Iraq by joining with Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair to strike at Syria and Iran, intelligence sources say."

Iraqi Girl tells of US Attack in Haditha - posted at Info Clearing House
From the history file and for the record.

People's Revolt in Lebanon
When the Shia in Lebanon call for elections it's "a coup attempt", when the Fata faction in Palestine calls for new elections it's "democracy".

By now it's become apparent to everyone in the Middle East that the US along with Little Britain and Israel have done everything they possibly could to soil, denigrate and make a completely hideous, hypocritical, mockery, of what these three powers laughingly call "freedom and  democracy"

Certainly many Muslims in the Middle East now know in their hearts that the term "freedom and democracy" has been perverted into its exact opposite by these Western Powers and when used by them, it only means more death, destruction and neo-colonial domination.

Nevertheless the peoples of the Middle East also know that "freedom and democracy" are noble and true concepts meant for them and their children to experience.  And that no amount of "El Salvadorization" or "Divide and Conquer" or "False Flag Op" strategies are going to cause them to turn their backs on what belongs to them.  No amount of bombings and collective punishments will stop them from obtaining political control over their own institutions, lands and resources.

The Western Powers can play all the "Great Games" they want too, but in the end they will leave the Middle East and let the people who live there decide their own fates.  In the end they will assuredly leave.

It is inevitable.
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Eye on Iraq: The other Iraq report
A quote...."Ever since Shiite militias across Iraq erupted into a frenzy of retaliatory random killings of Sunnis following the bombing of the al-Askariya, or Golden Mosque in Samara -- a cherished Shiite shrine -- on Feb. 22, 2006, we have charted and predicted in these columns the California-sized nation of 28 million people's rapid descent into a state of violent chaos. In the words of the great 17th century English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, life in Iraq has become nasty, brutish and short."

For more on this see....False Flag Ops - Al-Askari Mosque Bombing - City of Samara.
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Apartheid in the Holy Land
Regarding how many people in Israel have forgotten that which they swore they would never ever forget.

Saudi Royals Snub Bush, Fund Opposition to U.S. Troops
So?  They also funded the 9/11 attack and have had close personal, financial and business relationship with everyone in the Bush white House for the last twenty years.....so what?  No one cares, certainly not our "mass media" nor any current member of congress.  For more on this see....Financial Ties 9/11 & Flights 9/11

Blair urges Muslims to counter Iran
Al Qaeda as everyone knows is inspired by Sunni Wahabbist teachings. Their Madrassas are financially supported throughout the world by Saudi Arabia whose citizens comprised fifteen out of the nineteen hijackers who struck the US on 9/11. The Saudi Royals have just stated publicly in the article shown above that they have financed and are going to continue to finance their Sunni brethren who make up the bulk of the insurgents in Iraq, including and especially members of "al Qaeda".  A not surprising position to take considering the US is funding and training the death squads who are killing their Sunni brethren.

So.... "Calling on the world to 'wake up' to the global struggle between the forces of moderation and extremism, British prime minister Tony Blair urged moderate Muslim states (i.e. the Saudi Royals) to form an 'alliance of moderation' to counter Iran."

This is beyond stupidity; it's deliberate, malicious and an imbecilic justification for the continuation of the PNAC agenda.  These guys aren't even trying to be believable.  They just simply don't care anymore.

See also.... "White Man's Burden"
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A Chronicle of Escalation Foretold: The Red Crescent Assault
A quote...."Less than a mile from where British Prime Minister Tony Blair was gripping and grinning during a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday, agents of the extremist factions that he and George W. Bush have empowered, paid and heavily armed were raiding the offices of the Iraqi Red Crescent Agency and rounding up some of the few remaining relief workers in the country who attend to the suffering of all sides."

Zawahiri slams Hamas, Palestinian elections
Yes that's supposedly "al Qaeda's" number two man.  Does anybody see anything wrong with this picture?

Bush OKs Law Blocking Aid to Hamas Gov't
A quote...."WASHINGTON — President Bush signed into law a bill meant to block U.S. aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government and ban contacts with Hamas until the militant faction has renounced violence and recognized Israel's existence."

Bush and al-Qaeda agreeing, what a surprise.
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Britain’s establishment mourns Chilean dictator Pinochet
A quote...."The Conservative Party, big business, and sections of the British press mourned the death of Chile’s former dictator General Augusto Pinochet last week."

"Former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Pinochet’s most vocal supporter, declared herself 'greatly saddened' by his death. She had led the campaign for Pinochet’s release after he was arrested in London in October 1998 following an extradition request from Spain on 35 charges of torture and conspiracy to torture, praising him as 'a great friend of Britain' and the man responsible for 'bringing democracy to Chile.'"

Sort of says it all....doesn't it?
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Dead On Arrival - The NIST 9/11 Report on the WTC Collapse
Must read, This web site has never discussed the "physical evidence" for a 9/11 conspiracy and that will not change.  But the article shown above is very interesting.  Contrast it with this one....Debunking The 9/11 Myths - Mar. 2005 Cover Story

See also....How Not to Follow the Money - The Sequel
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Put on the Spot, Our Punk President Lies Yet Again
A very short list of his lies.

DNC: Bush No Longer Listening To Commanders On Troop Levels In Iraq
And some more.

'Absolutely, We're Winning' Morphs Into 'Just Kidding'
And more.

AP: Selective Service to test military draft machinery
A quote...."The Selective Service—the federal agency that would be integral to any draft effort by the Bush administration—will perform tests on its system equipment, The Associated Press is reporting"

U.S. Military Officials: Bush Trying To Bribe Us To Support Iraq Escalation
Bribing them with the military budget increase.  Ten cents out of every dollar might be seen by the troops, the rest will go to the usual suspects.

Kelo: “May you all rot in hell”
A quote...."Susette Kelo fought the eminent domain taking of her house for a private redevelopment all the way to the Supreme Court and lost.  Yet she’s still managed to get in the last word."

Caught On Tape: Man Hurls Rocks At GOP Headquarters
All storms begin with the smallest of breezes.

The Right To Communicate
A quote...."The issue of Net Neutrality is in the news once again, as Internet Freedom advocates push forward after a fresh victory with the defeat of telecom bill HR 5252. The bill died with the end of 109th Congress, and the situation looks positive with the new democrat controlled house and congress."

An Interview with Gore Vidal
Gore giving his historical prespective on the American Empire.

Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (Hardcover)
What they did to Enron they have now done to America and they are intent on doing it to the rest of the world.

Wednesday December 20th 2006

Do America and Israel Want ME Engulfed by Civil War?
Must Read, a quote...."Why would the US want and intend civil war raging across the Middle East, apparently threatening strategic interests like oil supplies and the security of a key regional ally, Israel? The era of the Middle East strongman, propped up by and enforcing Western policy, appears well and truly over. His power is being replaced with rule by civil war, apparently now the American Administration's favored model across the region."

"Constructive Instability" by any other name would be just as evil.
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Talking surge [& the Salvadore option]
A quote...."This is not the first time the US has adopted a policy of failure in Iraq. The Salvador Option, reported out of the Pentagon two years ago, involves much more than a network of paramilitary death squads attacking the popular insurgency. It is also a known recipe for extremely bloody civil war, as demonstrated in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras, to name a few".

"When the Salvador Option is invoked, it is an admission that the 'battle for hearts and minds' is lost. Once it is triggered, the victim nation will be subjected to an indefinite reign of terror until it “comes to its senses” and accepts 'international standards.'"

"Bishops may be assassinated while saying Mass. Nuns may be raped, tortured, murdered, and mutilated. Native Indians may be murdered by the tens of thousands. Anything goes. Meanwhile, the diplomatic, economic, and intelligence meddling will continue unabated, and the American public will eat a parade of stories about new 'peace plans' and 'early exit' strategies. That is the history of the Salvador Option."

For more on this issue see...."Viral Neocons"
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Iran to replace dollar with euro for deals
More regarding Iran's shift out of the US dollar.  This is the same move that Saddam made prior to the US's invasion of Iraq and is considered by many to be one of the motivating factors for the US's invasion of that country.

Sell-Out Democrats Have Walked into a Bush Trap on Iraq - posted at Information Clearing House
A quote...."The Democratic Party and its feckless leaders in Congress are about to fall into a trap. The trap is being sprung by President Bush and his too clever brain trust, but the sad fact is that it was actually laid by the Democrats themselves."

Abizaid, Top U.S. Mideast Commander During Iraq War, to Retire
A quote...."Abizaid, at a press conference in Baghdad today, said 'the time is right'' for his retirement' and 'it has nothing to do with dissatisfaction' with U.S. strategy in the war. Abizaid was with [the] new Defense Secretary Robert Gates who's in Iraq to reassess that strategy."

That's a disingenuous statement.  Abizaid didn't retire because of his "dissatisfaction" with the war; Abizaid was forced to retire because of his dissatisfaction with the war.

See the difference?
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Long-rumored shuffle of generals expected
Those who don't toe the new (hard)line.......

Broken Army, Broken Empire
In other words the 'pottery barn rule' does NOT apply.  If the Neocons broke the Empire, Pat doesn't think the American people should have to put it back together again or have to pay for it.

Hamas Leader: We'll Accept Israel Within 1967 Borders
But Israel won't.
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Jimmy Carter's Apartheid Charge Rings True
A quote...."Former President Jimmy Carter has come under sustained attack for having dared to use the term "apartheid" to describe Israel's policies in the West Bank. However, not one of Carter's critics has offered a convincing argument to justify the vehemence of the outcry, much less to refute his central claim that Israel bestows rights on Jewish residents settling illegally on Palestinian land, while denying the same rights to the indigenous Palestinians. Little wonder, for they are attempting to defy reality itself."

See also...Territorial fragmentation of the West Bank & The Media Lynching of Jimmy Carter

Regarding the "apartheid charge", FYI - if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, looks like a duck....it's probably a duck.
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Does He even Listen to His Own BS?
An example of frustration and perplexity with this country’s politicians and its mass media's utter inability to distinguish truth from fiction.

Let's make this abundantly, absolutely and totally crystal clear to all of you reading this blog, every time you watch a commercial TV broadcast, listen to a commercial radio or read a commercial newspaper you are not only supporting the people who rightfully think of you as sheep, but you give them your consent and blessing to treat you as such.

Stop being sheep.
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Trying to Make Sense of This War and The Democrats
More frustration and perplexity

Clinging to the [Nameless One's] Coat Tails
Ditto.

O-bomb-a and the War Party
More from the DemoRepub party, the last shining hope after Hiding Hillary's, and Prissy Pelosi's turnabout was Barack Obama.  Sad to say he has experienced the same hideous metamorphosis that many of the other Democrats have undergone.

He will now be known henceforth and forever more as "O-bombs-a-way Oboma".   He has now come out in favor of the war.....oh, of course he doesn't put it that way, none of them ever do.  No he just says we have to "stabilize Iraq", and "contain and ultimately extinguish the insurgency"

Typical.
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Cannon Fodder Call Home
A quote..."Where are the pro-war folks? Why are they not supporting their troops, as they so loudly proclaim. Are they, in truth, the real traitors to this country and all that it stands for?"

"Perhaps it’s an old story. The makers of the cannons rarely socialize with the cannon fodder. After all, that is sort of like playing with your food. Uncouth. Along the lines of socializing with the servants. One doesn’t, you know. If you must salve your conscious, make a well publicized contribution to the DAV next time they come to pick up your discards. After all, it’s deductible."
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Military action against Iran 'disastrous' - Kofi Annan
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a farewell news conference, urged the Security Council on Tuesday to push for a negotiated end to the Iranian nuclear crisis, saying military action would be a disaster."

Final results show Ahmadinejad opponents win Iran elections
This cannot be true, we were all told Iran is a dictatorship by the entire "mass media" of the US so this article simply can't be true.

Documentary: French troops had bin Laden in sights
A quote...."Film produced by two journalists says French special forces had al-Qaeda leader in their sights twice about three years ago, but their US superiors never ordered them to fire."

Oh it keeps getting better and better.....hey America how about that "fortuitous" 9/11 event that started this whole thing?  You 'all just keep right on pretending, ain't nobody believing you anymore.
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60 Minutes: CIA Official Reveals Bush, Cheney, Rice Were Personally Told Iraq Had No WMD in Fall 2002
A quote....."Tonight on 60 Minutes, Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of the CIA's Europe division, revealed that in the fall of 2002, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others were told by CIA Director George Tenet that Iraq's foreign minister -- who agreed to act as a spy for the United States -- had reported that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction program."

Sort 'ol like when they were all told prior to 9/11 about those warnings of an impending attack.....which they all forget.  Oh pardon me, so sorry 9/11 was mentioned again.
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Inspector General Says Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger Hid Classified Docs
A quote....'"There is absolutely no way to determine if Berger swiped any of these original documents. Consequently, there is no way to ever know if the 9/11 Commission received all required materials,' Davis said."

Spy vs. Spy, War With Syria? The gang that couldn't poison straight, or welcome to the new Cold War?
A quote...."Trying to unravel the tale behind the poisoning of former Russian KGB officer Alexander Litvineko is like taking a journey through Alice's looking glass, with the central characters just as about as bizarre as those who populated Lewis Carroll's tale."

Bush's Data Strip-Mining Plans
TIA reborn again, and again, and again......

Bush "Developing Illegal Bioterror Weapons" for Offensive Use
Hypocrisy doesn't quite describe it, not after killing over half a million Iraqis for having non-existent WMD.

Top Commanders Appear Set to Urge Larger U.S. Military
The endless war, sort of like the endless summer but with a lot of screaming, dying and loud explosions.

Violent Crimes on Rise, Especially in West, an F.B.I. Report Says
Just wait and see what happens after another ten more years of war.
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White Man's Burden
12-20-06
mpg

Australia: High Court clears way for expansion of federal power
It appears that something cyclical, terrible and evil is happening to white, English speaking countries.

Their populations and the elites who manage them are discarding the values they profess to believe in, the Constitutions they have paid for with their blood and the institutions they have so laboriously constructed for what appears to a continuation of the PNAC protocols.

They are promulgating laws, formulating rationales, centralizing power, engaging in a massive campaign of rearming and literally "conditioning" their populations for future "sacrifices" to mount an attack against much of the rest of the world to achieve "full spectrum dominance" over those countries that are endowed with the “commanding heights" of strategic natural resources.

The four countries involved are the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada.

Iraq and Afghanistan are just the start of their "long war-thirty year war" campaign.  These plans obviously have the full backing of the wealthy elites of the aforementioned countries.  There can be no other reason to explain why these vastly unpopular governments with their vastly unpopular policies are still in power.  There can be no other explanation for the utter emasculation and conversion of these nations’ formally robust and intrepid news establishments into outlets for government and Corporatist propaganda.

To Europe, South and Central America, Russia, China, Africa, and all the Pacific Rim countries if you do not develop coordinated policies to counteract these plans you and all your peoples will probably suffer serious consequences for your lack of preparation.

The progenitors of PNAC have formulated and implemented their plans over a period of twenty to thirty years.  The arranged events of 9/11, 7/11 and of course the Madrid bombings were their crowning glories of public perception management and were vivid demonstrations that they will stop at nothing to achieve their aims.

The last five years has simply been a foretaste of what’s to come, the first round of their long and bloody campaign to ruthlessly control the rest of the world’s natural resources.

They are just getting started.

end. mpg
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Tuesday December 19th 2006


Robert Gates Lines Up with Bush
Regarding how the DemoRepubs were "fooled" by Robert Gates subterfuge in painting himself as a "closet dove" during his confirmation hearings and how he showed his true colors at his swearing-in ceremony on Dec. 18, basically endorsing Bush's entire policy position that Iraq has to be "won" no matter what it takes.

The DemoRepubs weren't "fooled"; we all know where they get their money from.  See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, it's a Washington mantra.....sort 'a like what happened prior and after 9/11.

And just like 9/11 they'll all pretend they didn't see the coming disaster, crying crocodile tears all the way to the next MIOC-PAC meeting or fund raising event.
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Democrats Prepare to Fund Longer War
A nice summary of...."the evolution of the Democrats' war platform since November 7, 2006, the day the voters presented a clear mandate: 'End the war! Get out of Iraq!' and took the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives away from the Republicans."

Alternative Reasons for the “Surge” in Iraq and a Proposed Naval Buildup in the Persian Gulf
Some possible reasons for the planned "surge" in Iraq.  All of them are really bad news for the region.

Video: Former official says Iran sought dialogue with US in 2003
And was ignored.

Bush signing statement on US-India nuclear deal erases Congressional restrictions
Oh this is a perfect Bush moment.  A quote...."Hours after signing an agreement yesterday on cooperation with India on civilian nuclear technology, President George W. Bush issued a "signing statement" insisting that the executive branch was not bound by terms of the agreement approved by the House of Representatives and Senate, RAW STORY has learned."

So Bush, no doubt drooling deliriously, got to gut not just one, but two major documents with his signing statement, the NPT and the US constitution.  What a happy, joy-joy-time, feel-good day it must have been for him.

Is anybody going to stop him??   Is anybody out there??
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More deployments? We the People... spoke loudly on November 7th; has anybody been listening?
Not to the voices of the people, instead our representitutes could only hear the sounds of gold and silver coins clinking in the coffers of this nation's wealthy elites, it's the only sound they ever really listen to.

US Army might break Goodyear strike  from - Info Clearing House
A quote...."12/19/06 'Financial Times'- December 15 2006 - The US Army is considering measures to force striking workers back to their jobs at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Kansas in the face of a looming shortage of tyres for Humvee trucks and other military equipment used in Iraq and Afghanistan."

So it's not enough to have the lowest union participation rates since the Great Depression in this nation, and it's not enough for our government to collude with this nation's Corporatocracy to continuously pass anti-union legislation, no our government and the wealthy elites who control it now have to use the US army, that’s the United States Army, to intimidate the remaining fragments.

What a bunch of cowards our elites are.
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Chavez Landslide Tops All In US History
OH THIS IS DISGUSTING!  IT’S INTOLERABLE! First those horrible Muslim peoples in Lebanon and Palestine held their elections and than Israel had to go teach them, and is still teaching them, a lesson for voting the wrong way.

Than those awful Muslims in Iran also went to the polls, totally without the US's permission, and without the US encouraging them to vote by bombing or occupying them.

Now we have to sit idly by and tolerate this OUTRAGE, this TRAVESTY, this HORROR, of watching a bunch of Hispanic people in Venezuela not only vote without us occupying or bombing them - either; not only vote in an election monitored by every conceivable international agency, not only vote in a free and accurately counted election (what a novel and terrible idea) but Hugo Chavez Frias' electoral victory majority was greater than that of any US President since 1820.

The UNMITIGATED, UNREPENTANT, GALL OF THESE PEOPLE!!  HOW DARE THEY!!

We have to attack them immediately....... as soon as we're done bringing "freedom and democracy" to Iraq of course.....and Lebanon......and Palestine.....and Iran....and.......
.
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Esteemed Professor and Law Expert Warns Of Police State
Just keep watching the DemoRepubs.  If they can manage to totally reverse just ONE of the Bush Cabal's actions enumerated  in the Seventeen Acts to Restore Americans' Rights it would be a sign that this nation is finally regaining its senses.  It won't happen however, oh they'll pass all sorts of nice sounding legislation that will appear to blunt some of the heinous provisions passed by the Bush Cabal, but that will just be the appearance not the reality.

The Greatest Pump and Dump in Financial History
Must read, market problems.

Report Reveals 2.2 Million Borrowers Face Foreclosure on Subprime Home Loans
Housing problems.

Thai stocks crash as investors panic over central bank's currency rules
Currency problems.

Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat

That's right it's not a typo, it wasn't in Saudi Arabia, it was in Israel.  Quite a surprise actually.

The Age of Mammals - Looking Back on the First Quarter of the Twenty-First Century
Of things to come?

Monday December 18th 2006

Bush administration elaborates plans for bloodbath in Iraq
Must Read, a quote...."Reports on the Bush administration’s discussions on a change of course in Iraq indicate that Washington is preparing a major new bloodbath as part of a desperate attempt to salvage its nearly four-year-old bid to conquer the oil-rich country."
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US Financed Israel Bombing of Lebanon: Putin reported 'furious' over US payment for Lebanon war
& CIA Egypt terror ring
   Regarding the CIA terror ring a quote....."Security officials in Egypt released new details Monday about an American man in their custody on suspicion of links to a terror network which allegedly recruits Muslims to fight the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. In Washington, the administration said Monday it expected an American detained in Egypt as a suspected terrorist to be freed."

"The American was arrested late last month along with 11 Europeans and an unknown number of Egyptians and Arabs from other countries who were accused of belonging to an Islamist terror cell plotting attacks. Egyptian authorities expelled eight French citizens and two Belgians on Thursday. Another French citizen was in custody along with the American."

Also related  - French police release 8 terror suspects expelled from Egypt
A quote...."PARIS: French anti-terrorist police have freed eight Frenchmen accused by Egyptian authorities of plotting attacks in the Middle East and expelled from Egypt, judicial officials said Sunday.  The eight Frenchmen were arrested upon their arrival in France on Friday. The DSAT anti-terrorist agency released four Saturday, and four more Sunday, the judicial officials said."

Also related  - U.S. seeks to rein in its military spy teams
A quote...."12/18/06 " Los Angeles Times" -- - WASHINGTON — U.S. Special Forces teams sent overseas on secret spying missions have clashed with the CIA and carried out operations in countries that are staunch U.S. allies, prompting a new effort by the agency and the Pentagon to tighten the rules for military units engaged in espionage, according to senior U.S. intelligence and military officials"

Regarding the three articles shown above.  It's just the tip of the iceberg; the US already has acknowledged its support for the Taliban, al Qaeda and all sorts of other "terrorist" operations world wide prior to 9/11.  We now have ample evidence that the US is launching dozens of "terrorist" operations, black ops, and false flag operations under Rumsfeld's P2OG plan after 9/11.

Yet somehow no one in this country can look at what happened on 9/11 or what happened in Britain on 7/7 (London bombings).  But it doesn't matter if no one cares to look anymore, we as a country can stop pretending now, we really, really can.  This country is not fooling anyone anymore, even George has come out and acknowledged we're staying in Iraq for their oil resources, everyone through out the entire world knows why 9/11 was arranged, so the only question now is - is America going to investigate those who "arranged it" and punish them.....or not?

Most people through out the world would guess not.

For more on this see.....False Flag Ops  &  US Support of Terror & US support Death Sqds and of course America in Denial

In a related article see....9/11 'paymaster' back in court, may be cleared of Pearl's death
Regarding our Nation's non-existent connections with 9/11, i.e. see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
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Timewatch: Operation Gladio - Behind False Flag Terrorism & 9/11 Google video -  (part I)(part II)  -  (part III)
From the history file.

Some additional videos from Information Liberation
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Paramilitary Ties Implicate Colombia's Political Elite
Isn't it amazing that all these death squads across the world seem to be tied to the ruling elites?

Powell, Baker, Hamilton -- Thanks for Nothing
A quote...."When Colin Powell endorsed the Iraq Study Group report during his Dec. 17 appearance on 'Face the Nation,' it was another curtain call for a tragic farce."

"Four years ago, 'moderates' like Powell were making the invasion of Iraq possible. Now, in the guise of speaking truth to power, Powell and ISG co-chairs James Baker and Lee Hamilton are refueling the U.S. war effort by depicting it as a problem of strategy and management."

"But the U.S. war effort is a problem of lies and slaughter."
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Iraq is Vietnam-and You'd Better Believe It
A quote...."I was a civilian advisor/trainer in Vietnam, arriving just as US troops were going home. I wasn't there to fight, but I hadn't been in country a week when I learned that the word "noncombatant" didn't mean much where I was posted, fifty miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that then divided South Vietnam from North. I got the message when a sniper's bullet whistled past my ear on the main highway twenty miles south of Hué."

Report: Pentagon planning Navy buildup as 'warning to Iran'
War update.

Activist Coalition Call for Paper Ballots
A quote....An impressive coalition of election fraud-election integrity groups signed an open letter to the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives calling for paper ballots as the only standard for voting in the United States."

Money and Politic's and Politicians With Money
Some quotes...."I am going to beat a dead horse. I will beat this horse until there is nothing left, and then I will beat the ground that it lay on. There are things in this world that it seems the American people can not grasp......"

"The first thing I am going to tell you is that the notion of there being any difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is negligible. Do you actually believe that they feel any real responsibility to the people that elected them? You might not really want to hear this, but they really don't. The people they want to impress, and the people that they want the support of, are the people that fund the largest part of their campaigns......."
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Borrowers with Subprime Loans Fall Behind While Some Sub-Prime Lenders are forced to Close Their Doors
This is not a good sign, these are small lenders so at this point it's not a factor weighing on the economy....yet.  But if "debt" in this country ever starts to really matter, watch out.

EU trade chief to reject ‘green’ tax plan
A quote...."The European Union’s trade commissioner will on Monday dismiss French proposals for a 'green' tax on goods from countries that have not ratified the Kyoto treaty as not only a probable breach of trade rules but also 'not good politics'."

They probably meant to say, but also "not good profits".
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Save the Internet - YouTube video & Net Neutrality — A Cosmic Battle for Democracy & Huge Victory for Real People as Telco Bill Dies   See also....the  "The Last Bastion of Freedom is Falling"

CIA approved Iran report but White House blocks former official's Op-Ed based on it
Mind you it's not the report they're suppressing, just the analyst's opinion on the report.....typical Rove/Cheney/Bush

What I've Learned - By Kofi A. Annan
So that's why Bush hates him, Kofi has the ability to learn....something Bush is demonstrably incapable of.

Does Anybody Really Know Where the Money Comes From?
Not from the rich....that's why they're rich.

A Gag on Free Speech
The Bush administration is making new law every day, while tearing up all our old ones.

Rice Rejects Engaging Iran, Syria on Iraq
No surprise here, PNAC is still on schedule.

Chertoff: Real ID not “invasion of privacy”
Did you know the US now has a "National ID" card?  You didn't, well read and learn.  And the noose gets tighter and tighter.

Sunday December 17th 2006
 
The March to War: Political Crises in Lebanon and Palestine
Must read, the PNAC plan is still going forward, now with the complete support and complicity of the Democrats.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, has changed because of the recent US elections.

And in a related article....Palestine on the brink of Civil War?
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WARNING - WARNING - MUST SEE - video
Army Targets Truthout for Subpoenas in Watada Case
A quote...."In a case that cuts right to the heart of the First Amendment, a US Army prosecutor has indicated he intends to subpoena Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash, a Truthout reporter, and two of the nonprofit news organization's regular contributors, to authenticate news reports they produced and edited earlier this year that quoted an Army officer criticizing President Bush and the White House's rationale for the Iraq War."

This is your government in action - this is what they do.......It's starting already.

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Whistleblower That Ministers Tried to Muzzle
About the Butler commission and government supression of information.  For more on this see....Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war and The full transcript of evidence given to the Butler inquiry and Saddam seen as no threat - then politicians got to work
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Omissions In the Iraq Study Group Report
A good summary regarding how the US "played" Iraq for the last fifteen years.

U.S. Troops Should Leave Country, But How Will America Then Keep Control of Oil Fields?
A quote...."Advising the Bush administration on how to deal with the Iraq fiasco, the report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group urges the president to clarify that Washington does not seek to control Iraq's oil."

"It then gets down to business and sets out exactly how Washington should take control of Iraq's oil. "
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Hamas: Abbas' declaration a call for civil war
Hamas convoy, Abbas base attacked as Palestinian divide grows
Rice to seek additional funds to boost Abbas' security forces
Posted at AntiWar....and so the US's divide and conquer strategy appears to be a success for the moment in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon.  Tribal societies are so easy to play off against each other, just like the American Indians were.

And by the way, this is what happens if you hold a democratic election and win as Hamas did and the US doesn't like the results, you get to experience the US's version of "freedom and democracy".
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Iran hails elections as message to West
There go those disgusting Muslims again, actually holding elections without the US's permission.....who do these people think they are.  We should bomb them and kill them, oh that's right we've already scheduled that.  See below.

Steinitz estimates: US will attack Iran
Now that Bush has obtained his requisite "bi-partisanship cover", yeah he might....of course they could be bluffing.

Saturday December 16th 2006

US Troops Raid Hospital Again
The US military, winning hearts and minds again.

EXCLUSIVE: White House Forbids Publication Of Op-Ed On Iran By Former Bush Official
A quote...."Middle East analyst Flynt Leverett, who served under President Bush on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation, revealed today that the White House has been blocking the publication of an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. The column is critical of the administration’s refusal to engage Iran."

The U.S. Government Hates Democracy (Lessons From Italy)
Other than supporting the European countries after WWII, it's been a long downhill slide since than to our present circumstances.  This is really getting serious folks, the elites of this country have dug a hole so deep the only way they'll get out of it is to start a major war or several minor ones.  And they'll have to do it soon.

A Fair and Square Vote in Venezuela
Exactly the point, it's why we'll NEVER have such an election in this country.  And any of you out there care to say that's not true....fine!  Let’s have the same plethora of international observers here to observe this country's elections in 2008.  Yeah.....right, thought so.

The Great Wealth Transfer
It's really funny, while the US is becoming a de-industrializing, service economy for the wealthy, debt burdened, irresponsible, authoritarian, banana republic.  Many countries in Latin America are becoming egalitarian, industrialized, enlightened, fiscally secure, responsible, democratic republics.

And if things continue at the present rate we're going to have to ask them for loans to help bail us out.  My oh my how the wheel turns.
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McCain Says Major Financiers Will Back His 2008 Bid
Gee, what a surprise.

'This looks like civil war' - Palestinians battle on the streets
Calamity Condi must be thrilled, see also...."Calamity Condi"

Inflation lull may be sign of trouble ahead
2007 speed bump coming up.

Mint: Don't melt money
Not worth the metal it's minted on, because the metal is worth more.  We should all have pity for the once almighty dollar.

AP: 'Vicious killers' from Guantanamo Bay routinely freed by other countries
NOT!!...Yes it appears that the US seized, humiliated and horribly tortured lots of people who had no connection whatsoever with Al Queada. Wow what a surprise.  These people have been released and have scattered to the four winds to describe their horrendous ordeals to over one billion outraged Muslims throughout the world.

They are for want of a better description and through no fault of their own, our ambassadors of bad will.  Recruiting even more volunteers for the Jihadist’s cause thereby justifying a never ending "war on terror" or the "thirty years war" or the "long war".  More raison de'tra for the continued and expanding amounts spent to maintain America's military Empire.

Must be one of those coincidences....right?  Here are some quotes below.....

"•The Afghan government has freed every one of the more than 83 Afghans sent home. Lawmaker Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of Afghanistan's reconciliation commission, said many were innocent and wound up at Guantanamo because of tribal or personal rivalries."

"•At least 67 of 70 repatriated Pakistanis are free after spending a year in Adiala Jail. A senior Pakistani Interior Ministry official said investigators determined that most had been "sold" for bounties to U.S. forces by Afghan warlords who invented links between the men and al-Qaeda. "We consider them innocent," said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue."
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Defending the Indefensible: Torture and the American Empire -- Dennis Loo
Some quotes...."We know that members of the administration believe, as the New York Times' Ron Suskind chillingly recounted in an October 17, 2004, article, that they can make real whatever they want to be real and that they are not bound by what the rest of us are bound by -- empirical reality. Not all of them are religious fanatics, but those who aren't, such as Cheney, are arrogant enough to think that they can force things to be true that they desire to be true through sheer power."

"Their hostility to reason is truly radical and unprecedented in modern times. It is part of what makes them startlingly similar to their putative enemy, al-Qaeda. When they confront people who don't believe what they believe, whether those are Iraqis or Democrats or American citizens, their spontaneous inclination is to try to deceive and fool (and thereby "convince") and, failing that, to intimidate, to scare, to blackmail, to coerce, to bludgeon, to torture, or to kill. They do not believe in compromise, and they believe that their principles are not negotiable."

They are simply thugs.
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Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war
More lies finally revealed; to bad they weren’t revealed in time to stop the war in Iraq.

Transcript below

The full transcript of evidence given to the Butler inquiry  -  originaly posted at After Downing Street
A quote...."During my posting, at no time did HMG assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests. On the contrary, it was the commonly-held view among the officials dealing with Iraq that any threat had been effectively contained. I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed). (At the same time, we would frequently argue, when the US raised the subject, that "r¿gime change" was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos.)"
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 MI5 chief quits as full story of July 7 is about to emerge
Also the Intell. chief who coincidently held a terrorist bombing exercise in the London subway on the VERY same day the actual event occurred.  Don't you just love coincidences?  For more on this see....Vote for Us or there WILL be another Attack

Why the Bush family intervention on Iraq failed
The drunks are running the country still.

Iraq trade unions: No foreign oil control
Oh yeah like Bush is going to care.  Just think of what the Bushists have done to American unions and you'll get an idea of how they feel about a foreign union.  Not to mention they're irritation at these Iraqis audacity in thinking the oil belongs to the people of Iraq.  Guess the US we'll just have to bomb them some more.

So Where Has All The Snow Gone?
Go ask Bush.

Matt Damon: Maybe President Bush’s daughters should go to Iraq.
Maybe they should

end-mpg